Cave of Forgotten Nightmares

After the death of her mother, Abigail (Brianna Deutsch) receives a vial containing the blood of The First. In this photo, Abigail looks to be about ten years old. She gave Scarlett to the Harkers about thirty years ago. If her mother was killed by The Elders when she was ten, The Elders must have been entombed during the 1960s.

Scarlett (Missy Peregrym) and Abigail (Andee Frizzell) hike through the mountains toward the Elder’s tomb. Dimitri, Scab, and Ivory are also headed there. At the insistence of her mother (the real Abigail, not the imposter from Episode 2.10), they stop to rest, and Scarlett notices a pendant on her mother’s neck.

SCARLETT:“What is that on your neck?”ABIGAIL:“Blood. I’ve been wearing this since I was a kid.”SCARLETT:“That’s creepy. Whose is it?”ABIGAIL:“It’s blood from the dark one. The first.”SCARLETT:“The dark one?”ABIGAIL:“Don’t say his name. Legend has it he can hear it.”SCARLETT:“You don’t really think that he’s alive?”ABIGAIL:“Yes, I do. I was given this just after my mother was killed by the elders.”SCARLETT:“So my great-grandmother gave that to you. Why? What for?”ABIGAIL:“I don’t know. It’s supposed to have some kind of special powers, but they haven’t… I was experimenting on this when I was pregnant with the two of you. I was trying to find a cure.”

Scarlett and Abigail share a vision of a crucial moment in their past. The computer from the 1980s is a nice touch.

The reference to The First immediately brings to mind the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In BTVS, The First had no name, so there was no concern about uttering it. Buffy’s First Evil described itself as an inherent aspect of life. Coincidentally, what VAN HELSING’s vampirism virus brings out in its victims is a similarly innate evil, buried in their genetic makeup.

“You think you can fight me? I’m not a demon, little girl. I am something that you can’t even conceive. The First Evil. Beyond sin, beyond death. I am the thing the darkness fears. You’ll never see me, but I am everywhere. Every being, every thought, every drop of hate.”
― (Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Episode 3.10)

Scarlett and Abigail prepare to enter the cave where The Elder is buried.

It seems that the “special vampire” whose blood Abigail was working with during her pregnancy was this “first”. To the Van Helsing family, The First most likely means Dracula.

The cave where The Elder is entombed induces hallucinations (perhaps like the caves of Acharaca in Ancient Greece, where visitors were “blessed by the Gods” with visions caused by toxic gasses from volcanic vents). The visions experienced by Scarlett and her mother are mild compared to those that afflict Dimitri, Scab, and Ivory. The Van Helsings see bits of their past history that support Mama Van Helsing’s story of who she is, and why she left her children in the care of others.

Dimitri dreams of his last days as a human. He was apparently an Ambassador to France (probably from Wallachia) and had desires that even the Marquis de Sade could not satisfy. The Marquis introduced Dimitri to his “Master”, who turned him into a vampire. (de Sade as portrayed in this episode does not look like a vampire.) The Elder, after being released by Mama Van Helsing, says that he remembers the look of fear on Dimitri’s face as he was about to be turned, implying that The Elder was Dimitri’s sire.

Scab‘s real name is Scott, but he actually was a scab (in the picket-line-crossing sense) when he was human, and, like Scarlett, Scab is claustrophobic. Regarding the scabbing thing, here’s a quote from Jack London: “It is not nice to be a scab. Not only is it not in good social taste and comradeship, but, from the standpoint of food and shelter, it is bad business policy.”

Realizing her power, Scarlett commands The Elder to kill Dimitri

Ivory (Jennifer Cheon) relived a memory of herself being burned at the stake by overly zealous Christians. This is more than a little bit puzzling, because how could she have become a vampire after first becoming a pile of ashes? Was she rescued from the flames? If so, by whom?

It turns out that only a Van Helsing could open the vault and free The Elder. Also, when this particular elder was captured, he was given a choice between fealty or death and chose the former, meaning that he is now required to obey the orders of any Van Helsing (until such time as The First is released from his coffin).

Vanessa re-awakened

Scarlett orders him to kill Dimitri, which pisses The Elder off greatly, but he does so, nonetheless. (Dimitri’s death is quite permanent, as his head is squashed.) She then orders him to go find Vanessa. The Elder does this, and kills everyone in the facility imprisoning her (likely including Dr. Harrison and the fake Abigail. Their helicopter is visible on the pad, so they hadn’t gone anywhere). Vanessa is comatose when found (as she was at the beginning of Season One) and the Elder wakes her with a bite. Her eyes turn red after she wakes, possibly indicating the triggering of more and different powers.

Vanessa’s sister attempts to save her dying mother with blood. (Scarlett’s blood is a combination of Van Helsing blood and the blood of The First, according to The Elder.) We are left in a state of uncertainty regarding Abigail’s survival, but the possibility of Scarlett, Vanessa, and Abigail working together against the vampires in Season Three, with The Elder as an unwilling accomplice in their activities, sounds very promising.

VAN HELSING is a much better show since Missy Peregrym was added to the cast.

NOTES

Season Two of VAN HELSING will be available on Netflix Canada on 19 January.

Cory Grüter-Andrew (Troy Johnson) is Curtis Farraday in the horror/thriller SUMMER OF ’84, in which a group of teenage friends, suspecting that their police officer neighbor is a serial killer, spend their summer spying on him and gathering evidence. SUMMER OF ’84 is an official selection of the 2018 SUNDANCE Film Festival. (First screening is 22 January at 11:59pm at the Library Center Theatre.)

Aleks Paunovic (Julius) will be Javier in WAY OUT OF BOUNDS, a comedy/drama about a basketball superstar named Solomon King (Otis Winston), who rediscovers, in a time of crisis, that there are things more important than money and fame. The film has a projected release date of 13 February 2019.

Raven Sto as Abigail’s grandmother

Raven Sto (Scarlett’s great-grandmother) is Flamingo Moon in STOA, a sci-fi film written and directed by Nathan Slattery that is a bit difficult to describe. We know that Stoa expands on the concept of Slattery’s 2005 film BIOPSY SHAKE (available on YouTube), and that the protagonist is pursued by adversaries through several different locations in space/time. In Slattery’s film, Stoa is the name of a mystical Island, and, in classic Greek architecture, it is a covered walkway or portico, usually a public one. (The reconstructed Stoa of Attalos is the main reference for the film’s computer generated architecture.) Currently being filmed in Vancouver, B.C. and Cork, Ireland, STOA is working toward a Canadian premiere sometime in late 2018.